“She looked hotter than a welder’s torch and much, much more interesting.”
Strip for Murder gave me so many laughs, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I returned to another Shell Scott mystery from Richard Prather. Case of the Vanishing Beauty is the first in the series, and why not go back to the beginning?
Shell Scott is hired by a young woman named Georgia to find her missing sister, Tracy. For mysterious reasons she refuses to discuss, she insists that he accompany her to a nightclub, a “Mexican dive” called “El Cuchillo.” The floor shows aren’t that hot until knife thrower, Miguel and his shapely partner, Lina start their routine. Shell has eyes for Lina:
She was slim. but with hips that were amply high, full breasts that she was careless about but nobody else ever would be.
Shell isn’t sure why he’s been dragged to the nightclub by his new client and his this “screwy case.” But the visit to El Cuchillo stirs up a hornet’s nest, and by the end of the night, Shell is deep in the case to find the missing Tracy.
Case of the Vanishing Beauty was published in 1950, six years before Strip for Murder. Both novels of full of Shell’s unbridled lascivious view towards women, but the setting of a nudist camp in Strip for Murder allowed plenty of opportunity for Shell’s self-deprecating humour. In Case of the Vanishing Beauty, pouty, explosive, sultry, Lina doesn’t develop beyond her stereotype even though her character appears in several scenes in the book. Venezuelan Lina, who calls herself a Mexican dancer, plays a fairly big (jealous, possessive, explosive) role in the book far beyond the floorshow, and, unfortunately as a stereotype, she’s not that interesting–although Shell Scott seems fascinated. Still, this is the first in a long series of over 40 books, and the tale includes some great riffs on California life and being a PI:
Southern California is a mecca and melting pot for half the cults and societies of the civilized, and sometimes uncivilized, world. Maybe you live here or maybe you’ve been here and know about it and maybe you don’t. I was born in this town. A quarter century ago, when I was a towheaded kid starting kindergarten, Los Angeles and Hollywood weren’t what they are now. Pepper trees lined Hollywood Boulevard and the movies were silent, flickery things. L.A.’s city limits were a fraction of what they are today, and the population was only about half what it is now.
I’ve watched it grow, and as it grew, and as people from all over the States and even the world poured in, a rash of religious, vegetarian, mystic, and occult healers and savers sprang up like no other part of the States ever saw. Messiahs sprang up out of the ground, milked the suckers dry, then faded out of sight. Healers laid on hands, read the stars for propitious signs, and stood on their heads to save the downtrodden and, incidentally, make a fast buck.
That’s a long quote, but it illustrates Prather’s breezy, yet punchy style; plus it includes the info that Shell Scott is a native-born Angelino which gave certain bragging rights back in the day.
While I didn’t enjoy Case of the Vanishing Beauty nearly as much as the very funny Strip for Murder, this first book introduces a great character: Shell Scott, who carries a 38 Colt and drives a yellow 1941 Cadillac convertible–he’s obviously not trying to keep a low profile around town. This is 50s Hollywood written in the 50s and not a writer trying to catch the right ambience. Prather successfully maintains a dream-like quality to the book that morphs into Shell Scott’s living nightmare:
After so long a time you get a little sick of violence. You see guys gasp and bleed and die, and it makes you feel a little funny, a little sick while it’s happening, when it’s right in front of your eyes. But it isn’t ever quite real when it’s going on, when you’re in it. Maybe a muscle man slugs you, or a torpedo takes a shot at you, or you’re pulling a trigger yourself or smashing a fist into a guy’s face, and you’re hurting or crippling or killing some trigger-happy hood. But when it’s actually happening, you’ve got adrenalin shooting into your bloodstream, your heart pounds, your breath comes faster, pumping more oxygen into your veins. Glands and body organs start working overtime to keep you sharp, keep you alive, and you’re not the same, you’re not thinking like the same guy. It’s all kind of a blur like a picture out of focus jumping in front of your eyes
His Futile Preoccupations ..... 
Interesting comment: this is genuine 1950s writing, not someone trying to recreate that atmosphere. I recently read a book that was trying to do just that – Joe Flanagan’s Lesser Evils and there was much more subtlety and knowingness about it. (Ah, the retrospective eye!)
For me, many of the retrospective crime novels fail. A lot of authors seem to hit cliché. I’ll press forward with this series as I can see that Prather pressed the humour button tentatively.
Especially the ones set in the 1930s, channelling Chandler.
I like the quotes that you posted.
The writing style is engaging and makes me want to keep reading. I can see how Prather could be a very writer.
He wrote over 40 of these Scott Shell mysteries so I have a lot more to go.
I like the quotes and the atmosphere. Not a must-read, apparently but still enjoyable.
Decent enough for the start to a series
Rex Random is gnashing his teeth.
“…plus it includes the info that Shell Shock is a native-born Angelino…”
With a name like that, I guess he was a WWII veteran too, which fits right into the noir genre 🙂
Not many native-born Angelino’s with tow hair back in those days, and I certainly wasn’t one, not that I ever wanted to brag about the place having left for good at eighteen.
Typo… thanks for catching that.
Strip for Murder was a real piece of fluff, but he can be funny. Amazing how deep the sexism of the times was – well, not amazing, but memory is short. This reminds me of Dean Martin “spy thrillers” I sat through as an uncomprehending boy.
I may have to get this if only for the cover – hilarious!
I agree with Scott. I just love these covers.